broken compasses and wanderlust

My shows are back, guys.

Chuck: ( You're incredible! Is that your spy training? Duck Hunt. Nintendo. )

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Castle: ( HOMG. Nathan Fillion, why are you so good? )

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24 reaction post to follow later tonight.

People may or may not have already seen this, but I get a kick out of fanmade trailers (like that Thundercats one I posted about in December), so in case you haven't seen it, the Green Lantern starring Captain Tightpants Nathan Fillion:



In related Whedon news, they're making a Buffy movie. Just not with SMG. Or the original cast. Or Joss Whedon. Apparently they want to make it all dark and edgy? Say it with me, kids: EPIC.FAIL.

On the bright side, it's summer so that means So You Think You Can Dance is back, and I get to see the wonderfully bright and awesome Cat Deeley on my screen as well as awesome dancers. Should be fun. :)

ETA- Hey you know what would have been a better idea if they wanted to revamp Buffy and make it darker? Do a Fray movie. Same Slayer powers, waaaay different angst. And they'd have lots of fun with the CGI with Gunther and Urkonn.

Life just got cancelled.

No I'm not be coy or punny, I mean the fantastic show starring Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi, which had one of the best male-female cop partnerships on TV since Elliot and Olivia when they were good. Seriously, Crews and Reese were amazing together- platonically or even hinting toward romance, I just loved every second of their awesome awesome relationship. I do not understand why they are replacing good shows like Life with pilots that don't look very interesting and 5 hours of Jay Leno.

Also, they pushed the decision about Chuck until the 19th, but renewed Medium. Epic.fail.NBC. Finding out whether our favorite shows will come back is the only reason to pay attention to the Upfronts. I can't believe I have to wait until 24 is over to find out if Chuck is back. Just for that, I'm going to demand a full season of Chuck. None of this mid-season replacement, 13 episode for the season crap in case the whole Leno thing goes bust (which it will). I want all 22 episodes of Team Bartowski goodness.

Make it happen, NBC. I'll be expecting my Chuck renewal and my 24 DVDs in hand on May 19.

So, it's now towards the end of October, which means that I've finally nailed down my TV watching routine. Mondays are the worst because it's apparent that the studios don't want any of the shows to succeed. But overall there's a lot for me to watch on the DVR while I do my laundry so good times:

Mondays: Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl
( Chuck: 2x01- 2x04 )

( How I Met Your Mother- 4x01-4x05 )

( Gossip Girl- 2x01-2x07 )

Tuesdays: House, Fringe (pending), Eli Stone (pending)

( House- Season 5 thus far )

Wednesdays: Bones, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money
( Bones- 4x01-4x05 )

( Pushing Daisies- 2x01-2x04 )

( Private Practice- 2x01-2x03 )

( Dirty Sexy Money- 2x01-2x03 )

Thursdays: Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Office
( Ugly Betty- 3x01-3x04 )

( Grey's Anatomy 5x01-5x04 )

( The Office )

Friday: Life
( Life-2x01-2x05 )

Sunday: TAR, Brothers and Sisters
( The Amazing Race: S13 thus far )

( Brothers & Sisters- 3x01-3x04 )

So yeah, that is my massive TV catch-up post. Comment at will.

Hi. It occurred to me that some of you (Maree) don't really know what I'm talking about when I make TV/movies/entertainment news posts, because I use fan termionology. For that I apologize and so, here's your crash course on Terms to Know When Navigating Fandom.

( Fandom Lexicon. Vague spoilers for Veronica Mars, HIMYM, Grey's Anatomy, Harry Potter, Stargate SG-1, Chuck, Bones, Pushing Daisies, the Office and Lost )

Any questions?

OMG. Pushing Daisies is the most adorable show. It's like Angel if Angel were actually more like a weird mix of Rogue from X-Men and Amelie, and instead of fighting demons, he stuck only to talking to undead people. With Lemony Snicket narrating his story.

I love the cast. Chi McBride, Sylar's mom, and the hilarious Kristin Chenoweth. $10 says her character sings within the next 5 episodes. I'm already attached and want this show to succeed for many, many seasons.

Watch it next week, if you missed it. It's got Swoosie Kurtz in an eye patch, people. A *bedazzled* eye patch. You cannot lose.

And now to bed.

A couple people asked me what my thoughts on S3 of Grey's Anatomy have been thus far, as well as my thoughts on the Grey's Spinoff. If you want my bottom line, it's that I still love the individual crazy, wonderful, complex characters, but I think the show has gotten beyond the writers' capacity to write a tightly knit season that weaves all the characters' storylines into a central theme. (Hence its replacement by Ugly Betty as my favorite show on TV right now.  At some point, I'm going to post about that, but only after I give Jack Bauer and 24 this kind of treatment, which is up next).

If you want to know the full explanation, however, this is it, barring the blanket statements of "Sandra Oh continues to spin anything into gold" and "Bailey remains the most kickass character on this show." I wrote this up a long time ago over the summer and added to it over the winter break, but with the news of the spinoff and the latest batch of episodes, I put in some concluding thoughts, and decided to post it here now.  Because of that, it's really really long, so fair warning. Still, this pretty much sums up my thoughts on the series as a whole.

( My thoughts on the relationships on Grey's in essay form, complete with diagrams! )

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After rewatching the episode of Grey's Anatomy where the guy has that hysterical pregnancy tumor, I was reminded that Seattle Grace Hospital has an "Annual banquet" with "highlight reels." Given how wonky the timeline is on that show and that Shonda insists that S1-S3 are supposed to be one full year, can you imagine what that highlight reel would look like? And wouldn't it be awesome if the gossips at the nurses station were put in charge of it and someone like Sydney had to narrate? Because I think it would go something like this:

( SGH Annual Banquet Slideshow )

And to end, a funny fanfic rec devoted to Patrick Dempsey's hair

Don't get me wrong, I still love the show and I think that the whole Isaiah Washington-TR Knight debacle does merit an examination of the unacceptable (yet still tolerated) treatment of the gay community. It's hard to remember that originally the incident was referred to as Chokegate: the Dempsey-Washington throw down.

But does the "Grey's Anatomy Feud" really merit CNN coverage? Really? There are people dying in Iraq, people. Get it together CNN. Your standards have been slipping since Tucker Carlson got bitchslapped on his own show by Jon Stewart.

That said? I so cannot wait for the E! True Hollywood Story for Grey's Anatomy. It's going to be awesome whenever it comes out, you know it will.

On a side note, I think this may be why I love Justin Chambers, Sandra Oh, and Kate Walsh the bestest of this cast. Justin goes home to play with his five (FIVE!) kids, Sandra's too cool and too much of a professional to get sucked into the drama, and Kate Walsh just likes to get drunk and crack jokes the entire time.

(Although, as far as TV casts go, I heart the Bones cast the best, at least until the Golden Globes where the entire cast of Ugly Betty did a huge squee!fest at their win. Between America giving that awesome speech and Vanessa Williams interrupting Silvio Horta's speech, emerging from backstage squealing in delight, they are now neck and neck.)

ETA- for a full summary of the GA media coverage, read this.

I haven't seen 24 yet, but I know what's coming and writers, I hate you.

ETA: Ok it's now later. If you don't watch the show, skip this entry, cuz it's all 24 related.

( 24 Premiere thoughts, or alternately: Apparently all the terrorists must stage their attacks in L.A. )